How to justify the little sister route?

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TrickWithAKnife
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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#16 Post by TrickWithAKnife »

Guess I'll address the elephant in the room. What is the appeal of incest, as a story device? Sci-fi allows us to dream of future possibilities and exploration. Mystery challenges our powers of observation. Horror allows us to experience fear in a safe environment. But incest...?

If we know the reason why you want to include incest, perhaps it will help with advice on the best way to add it while still achieving whatever your goal is?
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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#17 Post by Asceai »

Typically the 'forbidden love' angle is a good one to play up - it's a classic device, but harder to write nowadays where class and racial barriers are seen as less and less plausible. Incest remains one of the few true forbidden loves left.

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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#18 Post by Vin Howard »

TrickWithAKnife wrote:Guess I'll address the elephant in the room. What is the appeal of incest, as a story device? Sci-fi allows us to dream of future possibilities and exploration. Mystery challenges our powers of observation. Horror allows us to experience fear in a safe environment. But incest...?

If we know the reason why you want to include incest, perhaps it will help with advice on the best way to add it while still achieving whatever your goal is?
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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#19 Post by Michiyo6918 »

Vin Howard wrote:
TrickWithAKnife wrote:Guess I'll address the elephant in the room. What is the appeal of incest, as a story device? Sci-fi allows us to dream of future possibilities and exploration. Mystery challenges our powers of observation. Horror allows us to experience fear in a safe environment. But incest...?

If we know the reason why you want to include incest, perhaps it will help with advice on the best way to add it while still achieving whatever your goal is?


Because humans love nothing more than to do things they know they shouldn't do.


This. (The Pandora box's story, anyone?)

But on a more serious note, beside incest may cause problem for your next offspring, I don't really see any other reason why it's such a big deal? I don't know, it's just me and my non-religious thing. IMO, people can love whoever they want, nobody has the right to tell them what or who they should love and who they shouldn't. If a brother loves his sister (like real love, not just out of curiosity), who am I to tell him that he shouldn't? I don't like forcing the whole 'it's immoral and forbidden and sick just because society classifies it as so' on other people.
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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#20 Post by TrickWithAKnife »

If you don't see a problem with incest, I don't think a debate on the topic will go anywhere constructive.
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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#21 Post by Michiyo6918 »

TrickWithAKnife wrote:If you don't see a problem with incest, I don't think a debate on the topic will go anywhere constructive.


Yeah. The one who opened the topic seemed to find out his solution for his story already so I guess it's the end for the topic? Once again people have their own opinions on thing so let's just leave it as that :P
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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#22 Post by Laiska »

I hate to stir up a discussion that already seems settled, but I do think the entire idea of fiction is to be able to explore angles that are not present or not possible or just plain taboo in real life. As a writer, I know that even things that I would find morally reprehensible in real life (or at the very least distasteful; I could never date my own sister), can make for interesting fiction. It's all in the "what if?"

If writers were only to write characters whose values and morals match up with the writer's views, then we would only have as many characters as there are creators, rather than the infinite universe of possibilities which exists in the realm of fiction. Even in VNs, where the player/reader takes on a semi-personal perspective of the events unfolding, it would be awfully boring to only play 'yourself' in the same flavour in every single game that you play and every first person story you read. Unless you are there purely for a completely vanilla (narratively speaking) dating sim type experience, where you yourself are the end all and be all of the protagonist's consciousness, I believe some of the fun is in being able to step into the mind of someone else for a little while. If you acknowledge that much, it's easier to say, "Well personally I think incest would be a terrible horrible idea, but I'll go along with this and see why someone might enjoy it."

As for why people might personally enjoy an incest angle in their games? Mainly I think it's already been said, people love to try the things that they know they should not, so what better place to do so than within a consequence-free computer game?

In any case I don't find it at all productive to come into a topic looking for a new spin on an uncommon (but not unheard of) trope and cast judgement on it. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes, even if they don't mesh with our own.

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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#23 Post by MaiMai »

The thing is, it's barely uncommon anymore (fake and real for that matter) which is why it can be pretty eye roll worthy, regardless of what you feel about it.
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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#24 Post by Laiska »

Well, this is true. Though at this point there's such a wealth of already produced media that hardly anything is uncommon (except for... well I won't get into that just now xD). But I was responding more to the apparent moral objection, rather than an objection to plot elements that are growing stale. And the latter issue was the whole point of the topic I think, so, there you go.

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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#25 Post by ThisIsNoName »

I know this topic has already been settled, but I'm kind of suprised Genetic Sexual Attraction hasn't been brought up yet. Basically, if you and a family member are seperated long enough for the Westermarck Effect to not take effect, you are actually more likely to be attracted to that family member when you meet them later, compared to non-family members.

Anyways, here's a forum I found that might give you some insight.

I hope this gives you a few helpful answers. Good luck!

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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#26 Post by LateWhiteRabbit »

ThisIsNoName wrote:I know this topic has already been settled, but I'm kind of suprised Genetic Sexual Attraction hasn't been brought up yet. Basically, if you and a family member are seperated long enough for the Westermarck Effect to not take effect, you are actually more likely to be attracted to that family member when you meet them later, compared to non-family members.
I was just debating whether to bring up this "opposite" side of the route and reveal.

Would it be too cruel to the player to have a "surprise, you're really siblings!" reveal at the end, like a reverse 'it's okay, you're not blood related'?

As ThisIsNoName points out, this is a very real effect, and a key reason why siblings are not longer split up in foster care, and sperm banks try to avoid too many mothers from one area with the same donor father.

If you never met your sister until you were both sexually mature adults, you'd be more attracted romantically to each other than you would a random stranger of equal beauty. Mother Nature's cruel joke I suppose.

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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#27 Post by Vin Howard »

Michiyo6918 wrote:
But on a more serious note, beside incest may cause problem for your next offspring, I don't really see any other reason why it's such a big deal?
Well as someone who has an imouto of his own, it all comes down to the dignity of family love. Romantic love between siblings destroys the sibling love (which I would argue is more real than the passion that all romantic love starts out with) that was there before. And since I have an imouto, that sibling love is something I hold very close to me and something I don't like seeing just disappear.

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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#28 Post by Caveat Lector »

LateWhiteRabbit wrote:
ThisIsNoName wrote:I know this topic has already been settled, but I'm kind of suprised Genetic Sexual Attraction hasn't been brought up yet. Basically, if you and a family member are seperated long enough for the Westermarck Effect to not take effect, you are actually more likely to be attracted to that family member when you meet them later, compared to non-family members.
I was just debating whether to bring up this "opposite" side of the route and reveal.

Would it be too cruel to the player to have a "surprise, you're really siblings!" reveal at the end, like a reverse 'it's okay, you're not blood related'?
If it's sprung out of nowhere at the very end, yes. But I think it's better to instead have the reveal be the turning point in Act 1--something similar to Koi Kaze?
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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#29 Post by Michiyo6918 »

Vin Howard wrote:Well as someone who has an imouto of his own, it all comes down to the dignity of family love. Romantic love between siblings destroys the sibling love (which I would argue is more real than the passion that all romantic love starts out with) that was there before. And since I have an imouto, that sibling love is something I hold very close to me and something I don't like seeing just disappear.


I understand what you are trying to say. I also have sisters myself so I know. That is why I hold a really high expectation for an incest story. I don't expect to see people falling in love with their siblings so easily, I mean, what about sibling love? People might make a mistake between sibling love with romantic love. (Like me used to have a crush on my cousin when I was 10 LMFAO) Thus, if a story come down to real incest, I want to see the characters being able to distinguish the two different kinds of love and dare to follow his/her true feeling.
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Re: How to justify the little sister route?

#30 Post by Rosstin2 »

TrickWithAKnife wrote:Guess I'll address the elephant in the room. What is the appeal of incest, as a story device? Sci-fi allows us to dream of future possibilities and exploration. Mystery challenges our powers of observation. Horror allows us to experience fear in a safe environment. But incest...?

If we know the reason why you want to include incest, perhaps it will help with advice on the best way to add it while still achieving whatever your goal is?
I'm really curious too. People specifically requested a relationship option with the adopted brother character in my latest game. I agreed because of the demand, but I'm still curious why people are so into it.
Vin Howard wrote:
Michiyo6918 wrote:
But on a more serious note, beside incest may cause problem for your next offspring, I don't really see any other reason why it's such a big deal?
Well as someone who has an imouto of his own, it all comes down to the dignity of family love. Romantic love between siblings destroys the sibling love (which I would argue is more real than the passion that all romantic love starts out with) that was there before. And since I have an imouto, that sibling love is something I hold very close to me and something I don't like seeing just disappear.
This is one of the reasons I find the idea pretty weird. I would rather see genuine non-romantic sibling relationships explored more often.
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